Mother's Day Weekend O Fun

Ahhhh. Silence. It's nearly 9 pm and finally all the kids are tucked nicely into their beds after a long and fun-filled weekend. I realize there is only one more Sunday night to go before the end of the school year and, well, I'm thrilled!

This has been such a great Mother's Day Weekend. Our ward has the tradition of sending our fathers and sons on a campout the Friday prior to Mother's Day. I used to think this was awful because, really, what mom wants to spend all afternoon the day before Mother's Day doing ADDITIONAL laundry? This year felt different, though. Our household number was cut in half as Jarad and my boys drove away around 4 pm on Friday. And I'm not at all hesitant to claim that the mess was reduced by more than that... hmmmm. The girls and I had a fun night out with some friends, hitting a movie and Applebees (which apparently is the best food ever in the minds of those younger than 9). Emma and I stayed up late (until 10!!) making brownies, playing a game, reading and talking before crashing. Emma loves Fathers and Sons weekend since she gets to sleep in my bed with me. Tess had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from the restaurant, so the hurdle of getting her to sleep was conveniently taken care of.

Judging from the amount of dirt on my boys' faces when they came home around 2 on Saturday afternoon, they had an excellent campout. We (meaning Emma and I) unloaded the car while the boys cleaned up, then re-packed the car for our next adventure: The Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel... sound exciting?

Here's that story. I caught wind of an "essay" contest wherein children could enter their mothers to win an overnight stay at the Sheraton, followed by Mother's Day Brunch at The District (their hotel restaurant). They would choose a handful of winners of the overnight stay, and one of these winners would win one of their super comfy beds, complete with all the linens. I was most excited about the prospect of the free food, so I "helped" Emma write an entry. About me. And why I needed the bed. Here's the winning entry:

My mom didn’t sleep very good last night. Actually, she hasn’t slept very good for eight years. Since I was born. You see, I’m the oldest of four kids. She did OK for about a year after my little brother turned one, but then the twins were born and none of us has slept good since. They’re three now. I think if my Mom had a really comfy bed (and some earplugs) she would be able to sleep better. Even if it was just for one night! I love my mom tons and want her to have the best Mothers Day ever!

So we headed up to the hotel last night, checked in and walked down the street to take the kids to watch the DBacks vs. the Washington Nationals. Didn't see much of the game for a variety of reasons, one being the vertigo one gets at the height of our seats. And another being that we have two three-year-olds. We did eat some hot dogs though. I think we lasted about an hour at the ballpark. We headed back to the hotel and let the kids swim in the rooftop pool for a while to wear them out for a long night's sleep.

Not only did we get to stay at the hotel in a suite and eat some SCRUMPTIOUS brunch this morning, we also won the BED!! There is a little guilt involved here, and I'm not sure what kind of lesson we taught our sweet daughter with all this... They wanted to take our picture with the bed we won, so we went down to the lobby this morning at the appointed time. The hotel's General Manager and Director of Sales were both there to greet us and just raved at Emma's comedic tone and how great her entry was. I had told her what I'd done -- entered it in her name, told her she could tell them I helped her write it, etc. But she was having the hardest time lying to these people about having written this thing. Thankfully it came off as bashful when they said "we loved what you wrote," and all she could do was shake her head and grin. What a horrible parent. But brunch was GOOOOOOOD!

We left the hotel mid-day, came home, chilled for the afternoon. Well, I did. I'm not sure what the rest of the family did. I kept trying to lie down since the kids got us up so early this morning. I even made SURE their black-out blinds were shut tight this morning so they would sleep in! No luck. Every time I found a quiet, cool spot somewhere in the house, a kid would find me and ask me to do something, or climb on me and get in a kicking fight with someone across my mid-section. So I quietly snuck into the kids' bedroom, locked the door behind me, turned on the fan and sprawled on Emma's bed for about 90 minutes. Happy Mother's Day to me!!

We rounded out the day with Jarad's family over for Mother's Day dessert this evening, and the kids got to play with their cousins while we chowed on some chocolate-caramel concoction I made this afternoon (pre-nap).

In all, an awesome Mother's Day weekend I doubt will be matched for many years to come!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life! Love you all!

Springtime fun in AZ

I've been on kind of a blogging strike. It's called laziness I think. I guess I just don't feel like we have much to report. BUT we have had some fun the last month or so, and I have pictures to prove it.

On Good Friday the kids and Jarad were all home, so we tried to make a fun family day out of it. Note I said TRIED. Emma had been sick all week but said she was feeling better. So we were going to hit REI to check out some gear for Jarad's Whitney climb (more about that in another post, perhaps) and hike A Mountain. We made it to REI and back to the car before Emma started to say she wasn't feeling well again. And all the kids were hungry. Quick Schlotzky's run (not my fave, but it's in the REI parking lot) and we were off. But Emma really deteriorated fast, and she was NOT up for a hike. So we went to Tempe Beach Park, ate our sandwiches, looked at the water for a few minutes and went back to the car. Consolation was that we got to drive around Tempe to look at all the new construction, etc. on campus. We got one decent picture of the day.


Jarad took the kids to Tempe again for Pat's Run. They did the .42 mile run, and had a blast. I'm pretty sure he agreed to take them so he could go to REI again.

Last week the kids had a half day, and the weather wasn't too sweltering, so I told Emma and Fish they could each invite a friend to come to the zoo with us for a couple of hours. I think they had fun! We were all pretty whooped when we got home though!


Finally, last weekend some friends of ours invited us to go camping. They do it right, I tell you what!! They were totally set up from Thursday to Sunday. We came up overnight, hitting Taco Bell on the way up so we didn't have to bring dinner food, we ate breakfast with them, and hit Pizza Factory on the way home so we didn't have to bring lunch food. It truly was a quickie campout. But super fun. The kids had a blast playing together, and we had some good firelight chats after all the chitlins were asleep. Thanks Rochelle and Scott! Let's do it again :).

Case was so excited all day to go to "the hunt." As soon as we got home he started asking when we get to go to the hunt again. He's thrilled (as are we girls) that it's Fathers and Sons this weekend! He gets to go to the hunt again on Friday!



Case tried to convince me that his shorts were wet b/c he fell in the water. Riiiiiight.

The Iron-y of it all...

Like many of you, a few months ago we recognized the need to go lean on our budget. One of the things we decided we could cut out of the budget was having Jarad's work shirts laundered and pressed. After all, I wasn't working very much (some months not at all!) and I couldn't justify spending money on a task that I could do myself when I clearly had the time. What I didn't anticipate was how much time ironing takes! I found myself always ironing in early afternoon when the twins are in "quiet time" (honestly, there's really no reason to call it that, but we can talk about that in another post), and watching Dr. Phil or The Doctors. What a waste of time! Mind-numbing waste of time.

Then, a few weeks ago I discovered that I can watch the previous Sunday's edition of Masterpiece Theatre online (remember we don't have a DVR or cable, so daytime viewing is limited to Dr. Phil, the soaps and any number of bad judges). Beautiful! I've also taken to borrowing movies from friends and from Blockbuster specifically with my ironing time in mind. It's a whole new world of entertainment -- without guilt! The sad thing is that it truly does take me almost the length of a feature film to iron a week's (or more if I've been lazy) worth of shirts. Let's not calculate the per-shirt time here. But the important thing is that I don't dread ironing day anymore. I never ever thought I'd say this, but I rather look forward to it! I even bought myself a new iron this week. Movin' on up the domestic ladder, I am.

Not Your Mama's Mu'umu'u

I have come to realize lately just why my mother wore mu'umu'us when I was growing up. No, I haven't taken to sporting big floral house dresses (mine have no flowers, thank you very much). But I have been wearing long flowing maxi dresses made from very lightweight fabrics. And which have no waistband.

When it's over 100 degrees, as it is today, I have no desire to be wearing anything that doesn't let the cool breezes flow (breezes from my central a/c and fans, mind you -- there is nothing cool about our weather outside today).

I think my mom was on to something all those years ago. Sorry I made fun of you all the time Mom. :) No doubt I'll get it from my daughters too, since I'm totally following in your footsteps.

Long live the maxi dress!!

Private Eyes

I've decided to go private with this bad boy.

I would love to continue boring all six of our readers with mundane details of our lives, so if you want to have access, please either email me or leave a comment here and I'll send you an invite.

Scooter Thievery

I am sometimes a wicked mommy.

Our kids ride their scooters to school and lock them up together, wound tightly with a skinny cable lock. Several of our friends and neighbors have had scooters stolen from the bike cage in the last few months, and because of the others' losses, I'm kind of a Nazi about my kids bringing their lock to school. If they lose it, they walk to school. (We're on our third lock of the year)

Today, they left the lock sitting on the floor of the front room. I noticed it about an hour after they left and, on my way to other errands, I stopped by the school to see if I could lock up their scooters. No luck. Bike cage was, of course, locked. But smart Emma had tied her bright pink sweatshirt around the two unlocked scooters (as if to say, "Hey, I have no lock on me!! Take me first!!).

The last thing I want is to have their scooters stolen, and I wasn't doing anything else anyway, so just before school got out I rode my bike over to the school. Bike cage was open. Their scooters were still there. So I go into the bike cage and take their scooters. I wasn't hiding, really. But I did want to see their reactions when they came out to find their scooters (and Emma's sweatshirt) gone.

It was priceless. I wish I'd had my video camera. They walked confidently to the spot where they'd left them. Then looked at each other. Then started circling the bike cage. Then Fisher spotted me. Caught. Emma was in tears and so mad at me.

I hope the lesson is learned. But even if it's not, I still got a total kick out of watching them look for those scooters.

Wicked mommy indeed. Mwaaa haaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Breaking Free!

I busted out today. From my ill-child-imposed house arrest. Emma has been sick since Friday with a high fever, cough, the trots (sorry, tmi?). Poor thing. She has missed school all week, which, in turn, means I have been at home with her pretty much 24/7.

So today I left her at home for a much-needed 30-minute outing. Don't worry. She had a stack of movies, a water bottle and the phone nearby. I escaped 1/4 mile away to the kids' school where Fisher received the Character Counts award for his class this quarter! I'm so proud of this little guy... we weren't sure, when he started preschool, how he would do in structured, quiet settings. He was such an energetic and loud toddler. Turns out structure is just what he needed to thrive (and apparently something I lack in providing at home!) because he has done so well, and always receives glowing reports from his teachers.

It seems Fish wasn't sure what to think of all those people looking at him when he went up to receive his award. He kind of looks like he's getting his mugshot taken. Congrats Fisher. We love you tons!